Over-50s 'to work past pension age'

Britons ditching expensive nights out and choosing to stay at home

A growing number of over-50s in England are expecting to work past the current state pension age, according to a major study.

Nearly a third - or 30% - of men aged between 60 and 64 years old said they expected to carry on working past the age of 65 in 2006/07, compared with 25% questioned in 2002/03.

The proportion of women aged between 55 and 59 years old who expected to carry on working past the age of 60 - currently the state pension age for women - also rose in the same period from 35% to 45%, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (Elsa) found.

The study also found employment rates for people in their 50s and 60s have risen, with 74% of men under the state pension age working in 2006 compared to 69% in 2002. The proportion of women working under the state pension age rose from 67% in 2002 to 72% in 2006.

Men, but not women, who were members of defined benefit pension schemes were more likely than those who were members of defined contribution pension schemes to leave full-time work, the study found.

People were found to be less likely to leave full-time work if their partner was working, with men especially likely to continue working beyond state pension age if their partner was still in employment.

Those with the least education were least likely to work beyond state pension age and among working people aged 52 to 69, those with least wealth were also most likely to have onset of a work disability and to stop working.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, of University College London (UCL) department of epidemiology and public health, who headed the study, said life expectancy had increased at an "astonishing" rate.

"If you reach the age of 65 and you are contemplating 20 further years, for example, particularly if you are not going to have a great deal of money in those 20 further years to do lots of interesting things or even buy presents for your grand children and have a healthy diet, that might change your view as to whether it is a good idea to keep working," he said.

The findings were released alongside statistics showing that the poorest elderly people were more than twice as likely to die than the richest over a given period.